Yelland is a village of 2,000 inhabitants situated in

North Devon North Devon is a local government district in Devon, England. North Devon Council is based in Barnstaple. Other towns and villages in the North Devon District include Braunton, Fremington, Ilfracombe, Instow, South Molton, Lynton and Lynmouth ...

between

Instow Instow is a village in north Devon, England. It is on the estuary where the rivers Taw and Torridge meet, between the villages of Westleigh and Yelland and on the opposite bank to Appledore. There is an electoral ward with the same name. The w ...

and Fremington in the

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

county of

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...

. Yelland is included within the

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...

of Fremington.

Amenities

There is a garage, and a small industrial park. Residents use the nearest major village Fremington, or the slightly smaller village of

for their daily needs.

Supermarket A supermarket is a self-service Retail#Types of outlets, shop offering a wide variety of food, Drink, beverages and Household goods, household products, organized into sections. This kind of store is larger and has a wider selection than earli ...

s are located in the nearest towns -

Barnstaple Barnstaple ( or ) is a river-port town in North Devon, England, at the River Taw's lowest crossing point before the Bristol Channel. From the 14th century, it was licensed to export wool and won great wealth. Later it imported Irish wool, bu ...

and

Bideford Bideford ( ) is a historic port town on the estuary of the River Torridge in north Devon, south-west England. It is the main town of the Torridge local government district. Toponymy In ancient records Bideford is recorded as ''Bedeford'', ''By ...

. There is no

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * Chris ...

situated in the village. Regular bus services are operated by Stagecoach Devon. The nearest railway station is

Barnstaple railway station Barnstaple railway station is the northern terminus of the Tarka Line and serves the town of Barnstaple, Devon. It is from at milepost 211.25 from . It is managed by Great Western Railway, which also operates the train service. It opened i ...

, and

Exeter International Airport Exeter Airport , formerly ''Exeter International Airport'', is an international airport located at Clyst Honiton in East Devon, close to the city of Exeter and within the county of Devon, South West England. Exeter has a CAA Public Use Aer ...

is the nearest passenger international

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surface ...

by road. The nearest international ferry port is at Plymouth. Children in the area generally attend Fremington or Instow Primary Schools at primary school age, and

Bideford College Bideford College is a mixed secondary school and sixth form located in Bideford in the English county of Devon. The principal is Claire Ankers. History It is the only state-funded secondary school in Bideford. In 2003, the college was awarded ...

, Pilton Community College or The Park Community School at secondary school age. College students attend Bideford College's sixth form, Petroc (formerly North Devon College), or may travel further afield.

Archaeology

Near Lower Yelland Farm is a

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...

megalithic A megalith is a large stone that has been used to construct a prehistoric structure or monument, either alone or together with other stones. There are over 35,000 in Europe alone, located widely from Sweden to the Mediterranean sea. The ...

site consisting of a double

stone row A stone row or stone alignment is a linear arrangement of upright, parallel megalithic standing stones set at intervals along a common axis or series of axes, usually dating from the later Neolithic or Bronze Age.Power (1997), p.23 Rows may be in ...

. They are unusual in being sited at the river's edge rather than on higher

moorland Moorland or moor is a type of habitat found in upland areas in temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands and montane grasslands and shrublands biomes, characterised by low-growing vegetation on acidic soils. Moorland, nowadays, generally ...

. Since its construction, thousands of years ago, the site has been smothered by

silt Silt is granular material of a size between sand and clay and composed mostly of broken grains of quartz. Silt may occur as a soil (often mixed with sand or clay) or as sediment mixed in suspension with water. Silt usually has a floury feel when ...

from the widening of the

River Taw The River Taw () rises at Taw Head, a spring on the central northern flanks of Dartmoor, crosses North Devon and at the town of Barnstaple, formerly a significant port, empties into Bideford Bay in the Bristol Channel, having formed a large ...

. The stones are no longer visible.

Walking trails

Visitors to Yelland and the surrounding area enjoy the views and scenic paths for walking. The

Tarka Trail The Tarka Trail is a series of footpaths and cyclepaths (rail trails) around north Devon, England that follow the route taken by the fictional Tarka the Otter in the book of that name. It covers a total of in a figure-of-eight route, centred o ...

and

South West Coast Path The South West Coast Path is England's longest waymarked long-distance footpath and a National Trail. It stretches for , running from Minehead in Somerset, along the coasts of Devon and Cornwall, to Poole Harbour in Dorset. Because it rises a ...

are easily accessible from the Yelland Power Station Road. Also Lower Yelland Nature Reserve. Bake and Brew a must visit.

East Yelland Coal-fired Power Station

View of old Yelland Power Station site on estuary of R

East Yelland Power Station Jetty - geograph

The East Yelland Power Station was once an operational

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when dea ...

-fired

electricity Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described ...

production plant located in a partially hidden area on the estuary, next to the

. The power station was one of only two located to the west of

Hinkley Point Hinkley Point is a headland on the Bristol Channel coast of Somerset, England, north of Bridgwater and west of Burnham-on-Sea, close to the mouth of the River Parrett. Excavations in 2014 and 2015, carried out by Cotswold Archaeology and f ...

. The power station was sanctioned in September 1949, and an extension approved in June 1950. The first generating set was commissioned in July 1953 and subsequent sets in November 1953, September 1954, October 1956, December 1956, and October 1957. The power station was formally opened on 21 April 1955 by Lord Fortescue. The station had a net capability to deliver 170 MW of electricity from six

Parsons Parsons may refer to: Places In the United States: * Parsons, Kansas, a city * Parsons, Missouri, an unincorporated community * Parsons, Tennessee, a city * Parsons, West Virginia, a town * Camp Parsons, a Boy Scout camp in the state of Washingto ...

31 MW turbo-alternators. There was also a 225 kW diesel engine house service set. The Thompson radiant heat steam boilers were fired by twin chain grate stokers could deliver 253 kg/s of steam at 42.7 bar and 468 °C. Cooling water to condense steam in the plant was drawn from the river estuary. The generating capacity and output was:CEGB ''Annual Report and Accounts'', 1961, 1962 & 1963 In the year ending 31 March 1981 the station delivered just 0.2 per cent of its capability.''CEGB Statistical Yearbook operating results 1980-81''. 1981, CEGB, London. In March 1984, it was announced by the

Central Electricity Generating Board The Central Electricity Generating Board (CEGB) was responsible for electricity generation, transmission and bulk sales in England and Wales from 1958 until privatisation of the electricity industry in the 1990s. It was established on 1 Januar ...

that the power station would close by the end of October that year. Fuel for the power station was obtained from

coal mine Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...

s in

South Wales South Wales ( cy, De Cymru) is a loosely defined region of Wales bordered by England to the east and mid Wales to the north. Generally considered to include the historic counties of Glamorgan and Monmouthshire, south Wales extends westwards ...

, and was transported across the

Bristol Channel The Bristol Channel ( cy, Môr Hafren, literal translation: "Severn Sea") is a major inlet in the island of Great Britain, separating South Wales from Devon and Somerset in South West England. It extends from the lower estuary of the River Seve ...

onto a jetty specially constructed for the power station. However, due to the closure of the coal mines in the 1980s, coal would be more expensive to obtain from other areas of the country. Therefore, it was more economical to close the power station. Today, most of the power station, which covered an area of 3.1ha, has been demolished.

References

External links

Information about the Megalithic site
including photos and an aerial photo showing its location, at megalithic.co.uk {{authority control Villages in Devon